What is Labor Force Participation

The male breadwinner model is a system of family organization where the male adult is the primary earning member while the wife is considered to be a stay-at-home mother responsible for managing the household and child rearing. It is particularly seen to be prevalent in India where it is reinforced by traditional norms separating women from public spaces. While cultural and religious norms perpetuate this stereotype of an ideal family, the model has also received a lot of support in state policies and laws. This chapter attempts to focus on policies in fields like identity, inheritance, maintenance, labour, and property law that have until recently or continue to relegate women to the position of an invisible supporting wage earner in the family. It specifically focuses on deficits in childcare policies. It traces the consequence of these policies in reducing labour force participation rates and perpetuating patriarchal norms in society. In the process, the chapter explains the rise of the model from industrial Europe, its manifestation in a non-Western society like India, and its hopeful decline.